1883. ] The Mink or Hoosier Frog. 951 
current; in others in bunches, in little bays, but in all places situ- 
ated half way between the bottom and surface of the water, I 
also saw two similar bunches of spawn on the 24th June. Itis 
therefore conclusive that Rana septentrionalis, the mink frog, 
spawns towards the end of July. On the 24th ult. I obtained 
several tadpoles, one a nearly perfected frog with only a small 
fragment of the tail to be absorbed; several had both legs and 
arms, and others the hind legs with the arms quite ready to make 
their appearance, and the skin confining them at the shoulders, 
transparent. Frogs now spawned cannot be completed this sea- 
son, as there are plenty of tadpoles in October and in November 
of R. catesbiana, septentrionalis and clamata. They are seen, all 
of them, without limbs in spring, and at the present moment they 
are all three being perfected and assuming the imago, or perfected 
form. Thus it requires two years to perfect this little frog. From 
my own observations and from the proportional size of numerous 
specimens, it requires two years more to bring them to maturity. 
Whether it was the effect of placing over a score together in 
the middle of June that caused their accouplement, I am unable 
to say, but there was no spawn deposited, which takes place at 
once in natural positions after coitu. 
In studying the “life-history” of any species, it must be care- 
fully traced, step by step. Analogy here is.no criterion whatever, 
and often ends in conclusions far remote from facts—errors need- 
ing much trouble to rectify. 
On the 2d of July a brook was examined that empties into the 
Lucknow river, and on a small rapid, shallow and broad, with a 
sandy and pebbly bottom, a cluster of tadpoles, of the species 
under consideration, was seen in a great disturbance, each indi- 
vidual on the outside endeavoring to force its way to some object 
in the general center. This proved to be a brook trout, Salmo 
Jontinalis, It was covered with tadpoles, and nothing but the 
back bone was left, and a small portion of the head, sufficient to 
identify it. In another similar spot I disturbed a fresh colony 
and secured the skeleton of a chub, which had also been eaten, 
nothing remaining but the back bones, head and tail. This is 
Now preserved in alcohol, and every atom of flesh had been eaten 
off, scales and intestines included. 
About twenty of the tadpoles were taken home and placed in 
a large glass vase filled with rain water. They were in various 
Stages of growth, some not much over an inch, and others with 
